devil

The English translation of a Greek word (diabolos) meaning “accuser” or “slanderer,” used in the LXX to translate the Hebrew “Satan” and in the NT as a virtual synonym for the same term. The idea that Satan was an angel put out of heaven because of his rebellion against God and his desire to assume the prerogatives of divinity seems to be reflected in (Luke 10:18). Jesus’s ability to expel the demons who were Satan’s minions was understood to be the result of his having conquered and “bound” Satan (Mark 3:27).